Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Most guns recovered in Chicago were originally purchased in Illinois, not states with less-restrictive gun laws, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Citing a groundbreaking study at the University of Chicago Crime Lab, authorities said 58% of the 1,375 guns recovered in crimes in Chicago were bought in Illinois. About 45% came from Cook…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com Bank robber Charles Estell, 38, of Illinois, spent the night trapped in a duct before police cut him free and arrested him, reports CBS News. Estell must have watched all the right movies to help plan his weekend bank heist. Problem is, he was more Charlie Chaplin than Sean Connery in his…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com In general, the entrepreneurial spirit should be lauded. Unfortunately, in this case, it was purely criminal. According to an FBI press release, 15 defendants allegedly registered 80 fake business names in Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota, then used these to file for unemployment insurance benefits to the tune of $8.7 Million. Defendants reportedly…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com A federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday socked Rod Blagojevich, the ever-chatty ex-Illinois Governor, with a 14-year prison term, just one year short of the minimum the prosecution had recommended, according to the Chicago Tribune. He is now scheduled to report to prison Feb. 16. “The vast majority of facts…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday faced the first of two days of hearings for his sentencing on public corruption charges. The usually chatty ex-governor had walked quietly out of his home earlier in the morning and into the courtroom via a passage blocked off to the media he once revelled in, a…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The retrial of Rod Blagojevich is putting more people than just the chatty ex-governor on the defensive. The Chicago Sun-Times on Monday reported that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) adamantly denied that he had fundraisers offer Blago about $1 million in campaign contributions in exchange for getting the Senate seat…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A man nicknamed the “Talib Islam” was sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to attempting to bomb the federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill., in September 2009, authorities said. Michael C. Finton, 31, a U.S. citizen from Decatur, Ill., was busted in an FBI sting. He was sentenced…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A 31-year-old Illinois man claims the FBI said it could remove him from the no-fly list if he agreed to go undercover at mosques, the Associated Press reported. He refused the offer. AP reported that Abe Mashal, a dog trainer from St. Charles, Ill., says the bureau said he landed on…
